TV Joins Film In Abandoning California to Chase Corporate Welfare

It is no longer just runaway film production undermining employment opportunities for Angelenos. The Los Angeles Daily News reports on a new study that shows television productions are also fleeing the former-Golden State in favor of what was once (and still is) derisively referred to by leftists as trickle-down economics:

A study released Tuesday by FilmL.A. shows that yet another sector of production is fleeing the area for other jurisdictions that offer better incentives.

For the first time, Los Angeles’ share of television pilots — the sample episodes used to sell a series — fell below the half mark, to 44 percent, during the 2013-14 development cycle.

More alarming, Los Angeles came in second to New York in the subcategory of one-hour drama pilots, with the Big Apple hosting 24 to L.A.’s 19. Dramas spend far more money and hire more workers than any other TV formats, and 91 dramatic pilots were made out-of-state this cycle.

Add 71 half-hour comedies to the California list — 76 percent of that subsector, down from 83 percent a year earlier — and local pilot production equaled 90 projects out of 203 that were tracked by the survey. In the previous development season, L.A. retained 52 percent of such shows, far down from the 2006-07 seasonal share of 82 percent.

The sole cause of this is left-wing Hollywood shamelessly and hypocritically chasing lower taxes and outright rebates (paid for by our taxes) from the government.

In word and votes, Hollywood opposes lower taxes and corporate welfare for Big Business. In deed, Hollywood is a big fat welfare queen preaching the gospel of trickle-down economics.

Lower our taxes and/or cut us a check, Wealthy Hollywood shouts, and it will trickle down into jobs for the working and middle class.

For California, losing TV pilots, those one-offs that more often than not go no further, might not sound like a big deal, but it is still hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of dollars being spent on that one-off. Moreover, if the series is picked up, chances are it will stay where the pilot was shot.

One does wonder, though, just how much of the free money gained by chasing tax incentives is used by Hollywoodists to fund the campaigns of extremist Democrats determined the raise taxes on the rest of us.

It’s a beautiful thing that Hollywood is able to use our tax money to fund the campaigns of Democrats who will raise our taxes so Hollywood can get more incentives that in part will be used to fund the campaigns of Democrats who will raise our taxes so Hollywood can…